Norwegian Jade Review
Definitely our best Norwegian experience to date
Rating by category
Additional details
This was our 8th cruise with NCL over the past 12 years. It was the first time that we have cruised out of Tampa and embarkation wasn't a great experience. There seemed to be limited organisation around the exercise. For example, signage was minimal, lines were very slow and there seemed to be no recognition for Latitudes membership. Oddly this was offset by separate desks for non USA clients, meaning that we cleared through a little quicker as the cruise population was heavily USA. Of course staterooms were not ready but we found that the Pacific Grill was serving a lunch and this was a far better option that tackling the first day buffet scrum!
Through the course of our cruise we ate in most of the restaurants, courtesy of a dining package. Our most frequented was Grand Pacific, where we ate breakfasts, lunches and evening meals. Service was variable with a noticeable dip in the second cruise when there appeared to be a lot of new staff. Breakfasts were good although service could be quite slow and, as ever, the absence of boiling water meant that we NEVER got a decent pot of tea. Lunch was usually good, but the menu tended to be quite restrictive if you're not keen on burgers. Evening meals were always excellent with a good variety of food, which we enjoyed fully. We did have one breakfast at Alazar which turned out to be unbearably noisy, probably because of the low ceiling and close proximity of tables so we never used it again. On port days we used the buffet and were very pleased with the range of food available. We found the oriental options especially good.
Cagney's was good and, although the quantity of meat offered was excessive, Moderno was enjoyable too. I was celebrating my birthday on this cruise and chose La Cucina as evening venue where we were extremely well looked after, with all the usual celebratory service. However our most enjoyed premium restaurant was Le Bistro. Service and food was excellent.
Cabin Review
Obstructed Oceanview
As we envisaged spending very little time in the stateroom on this cruise we opted for a restricted view Outside cabin. This came with excellent storage and, as our Macedonian steward, Bojan (Bobby) quickly found us additional hanging rails, we found that our wardrobe facilities were the best we had ever had and the cabin was a lot easier to move around. Consequently we were feeling very pleased with our cabin choice. That changed that night when we discovered that we could hear and feel the music from below. However as we reckoned that the show would be over by 10:30pm, we would be OK. MISTAKE! Room 8558 is not above the Stardust Theatre, it's above Medusa Night Club and they don't finish till midnight. Every beat of the bass, every snap of the drum reverberated through the cabin and, of course, a compère had to urge the wild, whooping recognition of every song performed. And that was the way the following evenings too.
The cruise was full, no flexibility on cabins, but Customer Service Desk were very sympathetic, and said that they would try to see if they could arrange something. As it happened an Inside Cabin became available for the rest of the first half of the cruise, but we were likely to have to return to 8558 for the second leg. Happily, Customer Services agreed that we could keep our stuff in the original room but sleep in the indoor room on deck 10. Following that we got to deck 10 for the second leg of the cruise courtesy of a no show. Interestingly, we found the new cabin less generous in storage and far less manoeuvrable.